The winners of the 4th Annual Wetpixel & DivePhotoGuide International Underwater Photo & Video Competition were announced during the Saturday night film festival at Our World Underwater in Chicago. Jason Heller from DivePhotoGuide presented the winning images and videos to an enthusiastic crowd, and they are on display all weekend at the show.

Congratulations to Justin Gilligan of Australia for his Best of Show split-shot photograph of a Portuguese Man O’ War. Category winners in this year’s competition represented over twenty countries!

Winning images and videos are being posted at the competition’s official website, UnderwaterCompetition.com. A special thanks to the generous sponsors, without which these competitions would not be possible. Good luck next year!

Continue reading for the film festival videos (featuring the winners) presented at OWU last weekend.

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Sea & Sea has announced two new housings to its lineup. The MDX-5D MKII will house the revolutionary Canon 5D Mark II dSLR, which not only weighs in with 21mp but also shoots HD video, while the other housing is the MDX-D700 which, in case you couldn’t guess, is for the Nikon D700. Both housings appear to be in the style and build quality we have become used to from Sea & Sea.

The D700 is being hailed as a great camera for Nikon and we already have examples of its underwater work, even though people aren’t sure if it is worth the upgrade. We are expecting to see this housing, featuring a 200ft/60m rating, two fiber-optic bulkheads, a YS-converter bulkhead and 5-pin Nikonos bulkhead, around the first week of March. Continue reading for photos of the new housing style…

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Wetpixel is going to start using its Twitter feed more and more in the coming months, and we’d love to have you follow us! Initially, the feed will announce new front page articles, plus interesting links discovered by both me and long-time member Giles Shaxted. Twitter is often the fastest way for us to share the things we’re browsing.

Eventually, we’ll have a rolling list of Wetpixel’s tweets somewhere on the front page, but for now, you’ll have to follow us if you’re interested! (and if you’re interested in becoming a contributor, let us know via the discussion forums)

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Our good friends over at Magic Filters have officially released their new instructional DVD, “Shooting Magic” (available immediately). The DVD was filmed and produced by Peter Rowlands and follows underwater photographer Alex Mustard over 6 dives in the Red Sea, 3 shooting with his DSLR and 3 with his compact camera. Alex demonstrates and describes the techniques he is using and the considerations, both technical and artistic,  that go into producing stunning available light photographs with Magic filters.

Mustard writes, “The DVD covers white balancing, subject selection, approach, exposure, composition, why you need a filter, etc. An important feature is that after each dive, we do a review of the shots and discuss in detail why some have worked and others have not. It gives you an idea of what you can expect to achieve in similar conditions. You will see all the shots, both good and bad, unadjusted straight from the camera…”

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Every year, the Catalina Conservancy coordinates the Avalon Underwater Cleanup, an event attended by hundreds of divers in an effort to clean up trash on Catalina Island. Now in its 28th year, the Cleanup also serves to raise funds for continued operation of the Catalina Hyperbaric Chamber.

Wetpixel sponsor H2O Photo Pros has offered “to produce a multimedia piece as well as still photographs that will be used to promote and advertise the clean up event for years to come,” but they need your help! A handful of volunteers have offered their time, but still needed are additional underwater and topside videographers and photographers to document the event. Transportation, tanks, and weights are provided to volunteers! Continue reading for all the details…

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